November's lessons covered Habit 5--Seek First to Understand and then to be Understood, and how this relates to Bullying. I had students in grades 4-6 complete a bullying survey. If you click
here or on the Bully Survey Page above, you will find a link to the results of student's perceptions of bullying at HPE.
In Kindergarten we read
The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler. I used red potatoes to facilitate a discussion with students about how the potatoes are different and alike. We decided that though the potatoes are different colors on the outside, for example some have spuds, some had spots, you can still make french fries, chips, potato soup, and mashed potatoes with them. Though they are different outside, they are still a potato! Then we likened this to how we are as people, we are different outside but inside we all have dreams, goals, and we want to be treated with kindness. We discussed that though we all look different, if we seek first to understand one another even if we are different, we can prevent bullying.
In First grade students listened to The Legend of Captain McFinn and Friends by Phyllis Cafaro on the Smart Board. The story tells about a shark, McFinn, who is a bully and decides to stop bullying others and becomes Captain McFinn when the other fish and underwater friends he bullies decide to be kind to him. Students identified in the story Habit 5, and noticed that the underwater fish friends decided to seek to understand McFinn first before talking to him. In doing so, they decided that though he was a bully, they were not, and they made the decision to help him and treat him kindly. They also used Habit 6, Synergize, to help him out of a tough situation. Students discussed how to use Seek First to Understand and then to be Understood to combat bullying as use Synergy to stand up for others when they see bullying happening.
In Second grade students learned about how Seek First to Understand and then to be Understood helps develop empathy. Empathy is taking a walk in another person's shoes and seeking to understand how that person feels before making a choice of how to talk to or treat someone. If students develop empathy by using Habit 5 they will likely make the decision not to bully others as well as stand up to bullying when they see it happening to other people. Students read the book The Bully Blocker's Club by Teresa Bateman and identified Habit 5 and Habit 6, Synergize, in the book and discussed how these habits helped the characters stop bulling in their school.
In Third grade students learned the tactic "Stop, Talk, and Walk," from a McGruff anti-bullying video, as a way to handle bullying behavior that is directed towards them. Students also did an activity to help them understand empathy and Habit 5. Students were given a red heart and I read a story out loud. Every time students heard an example of bullying in the story they were to fold their heart. Students then discussed how their hearts looked after the story was over. Students identified that their hearts would never be the same, and that even if they tried they would never be able to get rid of the creases in the hearts. We discussed that this is similar to how a person feels after being bullied. Bullying words and actions leave a life long negative impression on someone. Students discussed that if they use empathy to understand how this would feel if it were them (Habit 5), they would choose not to bully others and to stop bullying when they see it. Students taped their folded/torn hearts on a poster as a visual display to help them remember to use Habit 5 and empathy to stop bullying!
In Fifth grade students completed a small activity on how bullying feels to help them also develop empathy. Students identified different feelings they would have if they were in different situations, such as being left out of a friend group, being chosen last for teams on the playground, being hungry and having to beg for food on the street. They wrote these feelings/emotions on a note card and were asked to choose one and illustrate it. Students held these up and silently observed everyone else's feelings. We used this as an exercise in empathy--that though they haven't had these exact situations happen to them, they can understand and relate to how it would feel because they have felt sad, alone, left out, angry, frustrated, etc. We discussed how this is Habit 5 in practice. By Seeking First to Understand someone, we can think of how it would feel to be them or in their situation and that would drive how we decide to treat them or talk to them, and we can use this to stop and stand up to bullying. Students also watched the bullying video "Gum in My Hair."
In Sixth grade students did a few activities to help develop empathy and learn how to use Habit 5 to combat bullying. Students completed a "Cross the Line" activity where they stood on one side of a line of tape and when I described a situation they have had happen to them, the were to cross the line. Examples included being made fun of or treated differently because of the color of their skin, being left out of a game, seeing bullying but not standing up to it or doing anything about it, etc. Students discussed what it felt like to cross the line, or to not cross the line, as well as what it felt like to see their classmates do the same. We related this to empathy, how you can relate to another person's feeling even when you haven't had that same experience. Students then were shown a slide show of pictures, with just a portion of the picture showing. Students were asked to jot down their thoughts, opinions, and feelings about the picture and then were shown the whole picture. Students discussed how their opinions, thoughts, and feelings changed when they had the whole picture of a person's story. We related this to Habit 5--when we Seek First to Understand someone and their experience, we make a different choice in how we treat them and talk to them. As in other classes, we focused on how this can help students decide not to bully others as well as stop bullying when they see it happen.
Thanks for visiting my blog, and check back in December to find out more about Habit 5 and gratitude/kindness lessons I will be conducing in some classes.
